Abstract: With the development of the Internet and public awareness of environmental protection, an increasing number of people begin to express their sentiments about environmental pollution through online complaint platforms, and they have become an important force in pollution control. To explore the effect of public compliant sentiment on environmental pollution, this study uses the individual data for public complaints on air pollution, water pollution and solid pollution in 30 provinces in China from 2013 to 2020, to measure the public complaint sentiment and conduct a quantitative analysis using an econometric model. The empirical results show that: (1) Public compliant sentiment has a significant negative effect on air pollution, but has no significant effect on water and solid pollution. (2) Public complaint sentiment also indirectly impacts air pollution mitigation by influencing the government’s pollution control investment. (3) The effect of public compliant sentiment on environmental pollution shows the heterogeneity across regions and public characteristics, with more significant effect being in regions with developed economies and high education levels.

Key words: public compliant sentiment, environmental pollution, government investment, regional heterogeneity, public characteristics